This series I am doing for the South Padre Network has taken me from one end of the valley to the other to see the “best of the best” and record it on film. You can imagine how I felt when I typed in “TodoPadre” on a site and it said, “TodoPadre has been removed.” My heart sunk because of all the work I have put into this series. To think of all the work it represented and all the great photos I took, lost? Also, the students in my Spanish classes saw the triple meaning of “Todo Padre” and marveled at the beauty of the name once analyzed, to think I had lost that “spot” with that name on the Internet really saddened me. It darkened my day but I figured that since I had been trying to run with the wolves like JW and some other technical people, I figured I must have done it myself when trying to export and import blogs. I am horrible at beating myself up mercilessly in my head so I chalked it off to technical ignorance and wrote to some people. Now imagine my relief and joy to see it back http://todopadre23.blogspot.com/ Somehow, somebody resurrected it from the dead for me. Here are just a few of the photos that represent some of the areas interesting spots and people.

Hearing the rush of the water is the best thing about being near to the Anzalduas Dam.

Everyone is blessed to have so much water around to play in.

This majestic building is the newest beauty on South Padre Island, the Sapphire, a true gem.

As I traveled the valley, this picture and the story of these men who devoted their lives to spreading Catholicism kept resurfacing. It was neat to be able to link everything together: my path, their path, what they established, etc.

This earthen oven is still one of the coolest things in my book.

This part of the world is beautiful, no matter how many people speak negatively and constantly put it and its people down. I see true beauty in it and the history behind it. Maybe we all should look at this as not a pile of bricks but wonder who the people were who used it and what their lives were like. There is so much more to the world than its surface and we have only scratched it. You are welcome to join me on my quest for the best of the best on Todopadre23.blogspot.com and join in discovering the beauty of the area. We will continue to feature the neatest and most interesting things around.

This earthen oven we came across last weekend fascinates me. It was next to the church that Mission was founded on, La Lomita Mission.

The article I linked to here says that you can cook anything in this oven that you would cook in a regular oven as long as you can get it through the door. It says the oven is heated first, the coals scraped out, and then it is ready to be cooked in. http://www.appropedia.org/Blue_ox_earthen_oven